Untitled

New Zealander, Volume 9, Issue 757, 16 July 1853, Page 1 (Supplement)

fConlinmd from third page.J to which lie aspired, as that which we and our correspondents have from time to time instituted. For him to prate about "assaults upon private character" must appear an instance of effrontery,* in which "none but himself can be his parallel," to all who have read the attacks he has issued even within the last month on the private character of individuals with whom he had nothing whatever to do except on the ground that they were opposed to his pretensions to the Superintendency., Had Mr. Brown «known when he was beaten," —had he received the decision of the constituency against him in a spirit of becoming deference, and retired into the privacy which a majority of the Electors had by their votes declared to be his proper place,— ihen, there might have been some show of reason in his looking for the mercy of silence so far as public animadversion is concerned,—although still it would obviously remain for those whom he had assailed to determine for themselves individually what course it might be right for them to pursue. A few further observations than we had room for in our last, seem called for with respect to Mr. Brown's recent appearance 3b More the Supreme Court. We are far from believing that there arc not amongst those who voted for Mr. Brown many who, in their inmost souls, so venerite the sanctity of an oath, so as to shrink with abhorrence from any thing that has even the appearance of trifling with its obligation ;and many who, apart from their religious convictions and feelings as to its sacredness, would yet be rigidly governed by their sense of that honour and truth between man and man, without which society would, for all good purposes, be but as a rope of sand, and must soon crumble into disorder and ruin. Such persons will, on a searching review of ibis transaction, find themselves forced to a conclusion which will be only the more painful because it is so inevitable. For, the plea that when Mr. Brown made his affidavit he only swore that he did not "■liear" any elector but one audibly demand the poll, is a self-evident quibble. It deserves to be classed with the practice of hardswearing witnesses in some of the Assize courts, who think that if they can manage to kiss their thumbs instead of the book, they escape the obligation of the oath. It is undeniable that the point sorghtto be established was, that the poll had not been demanded by six electors. Mr. Brown swears (and, so far, most truly) that he stood close to the Returning Officer, and that it was impossible that he should not be cognisant of what lookp'ace. It follows that he must necessarily have seen a number of electors (twice the required six, or more) grouped round the Returning Officer at the moment when he heard Mr. Connell —who, as the mover of Col. Wynyard, was properly their spokesman —in a pMslinct voice demand the poll; and he must have seen the Returning Officer's outstretched finger, as he deliberately counted six from the group, and have heard the Returning Officer say, "You demand a poll ?" before he, on their assent being signified, turned round to the assembly.to declare that the poli would take place. Yet Mr. Brown . conies before the Court to make an affidavit which, if it means anything whatever to the purpose, must mean that the poll uas not demanded by the six electors. It may suit Mr. Brown's purpose now to quibble upon this

point, and even to admit that there were *" technical errors" in the mode of bringing forward his case to. amend which — were it not for rometliing —he would renew hisapplieation to "the Court, —and to concede that the Elector who first demanded the poll "possibly" did so " in the name of the other five." It is necessary for him to shift his ground in order to make out a door of escape which his more unscrupulous partisans may exhibit to the class of persons who are willing to subordinate their own minds Mr. Brown's mind and will, but who require, notwithstanding, just for " the look of the tiling" to have some verbiage at hand that, amongst the unreflecting, may pass current for argument and reason. But what was written, sworn, and recorded in the Supreme Court—remains; and it will remain in all future time as an additional portraiture of the intellectual and moral features of the man who feels himself "injured," as his Counsel expressed it, because he is not placed at the head of the civilized and professedly Christian community of the Province! It is in "relation to his pretensions to this oflice that the press and the public have directly to do with the matter. Had he been contented to remain plain William Brown, —merchant, shipping-agent, land-specula-tor, grazier, brewer, —or whatever els*- he may be in his wide-spread money-making schemes—then his views respecting the obligation of an oath (so long as they were not developed in some overt acts) might be exempted from scrutiny or comment, equally with the "peculiar views" he may entertain respecting Miracles, the Inspiration of the Scriptures, the duty and propriety of attendance on Divine Worship, and kindred subjects. But when he aspires to be—not merely a representative of the people in the previously usual sense of that expression—but to occupy a new post which stands preeminent—indeed alone,—in its importance amongst those places to which, under the British Constitution, the votes of the people can elevate a representative, then, a searching investigation of such qualifications in a candidate as are here indicated, becomes not Only allowable, but, if reasonable doubts exist, indispensable. There could scarcely be

a more pertinent inquiry than whether tf candidate for the Superin tendency could, or could not, be relied upon to take his oath of office in the fullest and strictest sense of its meaning, as understood by honest and honourable men, —without equivocation, mental reservation, or latitudinarian laxity or subterfuge of any kind. Not content with his defeat at the Poll, and with his second and ignominious defeat in the Supreme Court, Mr. Brown risks—or rather, we apprehend, incurs the certainty of —a third defeat at the handsof the Governor, to whom he has addressed a Petition, praying that he (Mr. Brown) "may be declared to be the duly elected Superintendent of the Province of Auckland," or at least that there may be a new election. This document consists so much of a re-production of the cavils with which the public have already been dosed to nausea, that we shall not trespass on our crowded columns to-day by any detailed exposure of its misrepresentations and fallacies. There is one paragraph, however, on which we must offer a few remarks. Mr. Brown winds up his "complaints" against the return of Colonel Wynyard with this extraordinary assertion. "Because the greatest number of legal votes duly given at such election was given in favour of your Petitioner." It might seem enough to say that all whose names stood finally upon the Electoral Roll were by law duly qualified voters, and their votes were good,—unless indeed i ■ cases of personation, double voting, or other frauds, scrutiny into which would most certainly be the reverse of serviceable to Mr. Brown's cause. But taking together the whole of what was published yesterday on his behalf, there can be little doubt that he intends here a reference to the votes of the Pensioners, and of Soldiers and persons having some ofiicial connection with the Government, whose names are a second time paraded at full length before the public eye. It is plain that Mr. Brown would, if he could, disfranchise all of those classes who did not vote for himself;—those who did, he would unquestionably deem, not merely entitled to a continuance of Ike privilege, but to the highest commendation besides. And on what just ground are the Pensioners' votes to be cried down ? The Pensioners are settlers in a most proper sense of the term, and very many of them are, moreover, industrious and thriving settlers, pursuing a course which is not only creditable to themselves but beneficial to the country. They arc; all even now virtually proprietors of land; many i\re actually so by purchase, and the whole will actually be so in a short time. Mr. Brown has, from first to last, looked will) no friendly eye; on the admission of the Pensioners to political privileges; and now he would pour contempt ou their suffrages,— except of course, those of his own supporters. These he eulogizes as "a fearless and glorious minority," but the majority he censures as "over-ridden by military influence," and sneers at as "a compact little phalanx" whom he contrasts with those who "could not be intimidated" from supporting himself, --evidently meaning that those who voted for Colonel Wynyard were "intimidated." We leave this to the indignation of the Pensioners themselves. That so many did vole for Mr. Brown abundantly proves that the Pensioners as a body felt themselves free to judge and a:t & they pleased, and it is a foul caiuinnv to assert or insinuate that Colonel Wynyard's supporters were not at least equally independent with their comrades.

As to the military who voted on the occasion, there isa view of the matter, theimporance of which has perhaps not been fully brought forward. A considerable portion of them are not only legally entitled to the franchise as householders, but they have the additional claim derived from their being Freeholders. In the List published by Mr. Brown of " Officers and Privates of the 58th Regiment and of the other Military Departments" who voted for Colonel Wynyard, at least twenty may be found who possess Treehold Property, and the Sum actually invested by them in the purchase of such property amounts in the aggregate to not less than 10,000/. Arc they to have no right to vote, unless (hey vote for Mr. Brown —a necessary proviso, inasmuch as at the time of the Provincial Council Election last year Mr. Brown's canvassers earnestly, and in some instances successfully, solicited the votes of these very individuals, and then we heard no complaint because of their exercise of the franchise. Moreover, it is far from improbable that some of these Military Freeholders look forward to settling down in future years in New Zealand, and, in anticipation of that event, are now, as opportunity offers, acquiring property in what they intend to make their adopted country. We have all been desirous of pointing out to Officers returning from India and elsewhere, the advantages in climate and other respects which New Zealand holds out. What is to be the influence on the welfare of the district of such attacks on Military men for exercising their civil privileges, as those in which Mr. Brown is now venting his spleen? Is this the way to induce Officers retiring from the service to choose as their home a Province in which there is the remotest chance of the Superintendent's Chair being occupied by Mr. Brown? The question needs no answer. And as to " Government Officers," the samegeneral principle applies. Mostof them have acquired, or arc acquiring, more or less property in the country, sonic by investing-

in its soil their private means. Many of them have children, whose future home it is to be. Are these to be debarred from recording their legal votes in the election of the Civil Head of the province? Of course the exception again comes in,—unless they vole for Mr. Brown. In that case, they would, like the editor of the Maori Messenger, be graciously omitted from the " Black List." Want of space, rather than want of matter, obliges us to conclude; and we may end this, as we have ended other articles on the subject, by once more calling attention to the accumulated and still accumulating evidences of Mr. Brown's unfitness for the Superintendence. In this article we have touched only a few of the many proofs of this unfitness; but we leave it to any impartial reader to determine whether these, even viewed apart from all others, are not more than enough to establish the fact.